The Best & Worst QUAD Exercises (Ranked Using Science)

what are the best and worst quad exercises for muscle growth well in this video I'll be ranking 20 of the most popular movements on a tier list from s for super to F for fail and at the end I'll Crown one exercise as the best of the best and one as the worst of the worst and for a quad exercise to get into s tier it needs to tick three boxes first High quad tension especially in the stretched position second it needs to feel good that means it doesn't cause knee pain and it has a

smooth resistance profile third it needs to have a simple progression that means you can apply Progressive overload by either adding some weight or a rep from week to week now as I'm sure you all know there are four heads of the quadriceps hence the quad prefects actually one recent Anatomy paper suggested that there could be a fifth head but if it does exist in some of us I don't think it changes anything training wise the foreheads are the vastest medialis also known as the teardrop muscle on the inside the vastest intermedius which runs down the

middle the vastest lateralis on the outside and finally there's the rectus femoris which is a long flat head that also runs down the middle on top of the other heads all four heads contract to perform knee extension which is when you straighten your knee out so every exercise we cover performs knee extension however one head that long flat rectus femoris has a second function it also performs something called hip flexion which is when you raise your leg up to the front keep this in mind for later all right let's get the worst out of the

way so you guys don't waste any time on them let's see squat combination exercises like the the squat plus press and the lunge plus curl are going straight to F tier that's because your quads are way stronger than your shoulders or your arms so your upper body is always going to fatigue well before your quads bosu ball squats are so bad I didn't even film them the problem is because they're so unstable your ankle ends up doing a lot of the stabilization work and that severely limits the amount of tension that your quads receive they

might have some utility in some athletic contexts but for building muscle bosu ball squats are going straight to F tier all right so what about the most popular quad exercise of all time the barbell back squat well let's see it offers high tension on the quads deep in the hole when they're most stretched they should feel good especially once you lock in your bar path and they might be one of the best exercises for Progressive overload period you can always add a little weight or a rep each week as you gain size and strength now

because it's a free weight squat your spinal Erectors will have to do some stabilization but that's not a deal breaker in my opinion your quads are still the prime movers and if you need any proof that squats can build some monster quads just go to a powerlifting meat all the biggest squatters will have some massive quads and I don't think I've ever seen an exception to that now some Anatomy enjoyers will point out that the rectus fous head is not maximally activated by the squat because unlike the other three heads it's shortening at the knee

while lengthening at the hip this is true however studies still show pretty solid rectus femoris growth with squats and as long as you include one other exercise in your program that will get to this concern completely goes away so while the mild Anatomy concern almost pulls it back to a tier I just can't take the barbell back squat out of s tier without a guilty conscience the barbell front squat has all the same upsides of the barbell back squat except it actually shifts even more tension to the quads that's because where the barbell Center of

mass is shifted forward in front of your neck you're forced to keep a more upright posture so you don't fall over this increases the moment arm to the knee joint placing more tension on the quads that said the forward bar Position will also force your upper back to work harder and some coaches argue that this causes your upper back to become the limiting factor I don't fully agree unless you're going super heavy you really should be able to keep your elbows up and you should be able to get your quads close to failure without your

back giving out first now front squats will lose a few points in the feels good department for some of you but remember that for bodybuilding you can use the two-finger grip the crossed arm grip or the strap grip whatever feels best from there just focus on keeping your elbows up squatting down between your legs and standing back up with a tall chest I'm going to put these in a tier because despite activating the quads a bit more I find enough people just hate doing them or find the bar position awkward and I don't think there's

enough of a tension shift to Trump that if you can do them comfortably though I'd have no problem if you bump them up to S tier Okay so we've covered a high bar back squat in a front squat what about a low bar back squat for a low bar squat you shift the barbell Down 2 or 3 in so it sits on your rear delts instead of your upper traps and research shows that while this technique will allow you to load more total weight it actually shifts some of the tension away from your quads and

onto your glutes this isn't a complete deal breaker though because you you still see extremely high quad activity as long as you're squatting to a reasonable depth low breath squats are going in a tier as well the hack squat is a longtime bodybuilding staple and it ticks all the same boxes as the barbell squat plus it has a few extra benefits you can generally get your sets done a bit faster because there's less setup you'll be a bit more locked in meaning less stabilization work and potentially more direct quad tension and you can play with

your foot position to find a comfortable spot without worrying about your balance contrary to popular belief the latest science shows that on average free weights and machines can both build muscle roughly equally as long as you're pushing your sets hard this is truly a brilliant quad Builder and it's obviously going an S TI the pendulum squat is similar to the hack squat except the weight moves up and down in an arc I actually find this resistance path feels more natural than the linear hack squat so these movements just keep getting better and better that said

most gyms don't have a pendulum squat so not everyone will be able to do it I still think it belongs in s tier though all right last squat type movement for now the Smith machine squat seems to be a bit more accepted now than it was for or 5 years ago especially as more top bodybuilders gravitate to it I think the best thing about the Smith machine is that you can actually push your quads close to or to failure without that same fear of falling over or needing to dump the bar and other than potentially

redu stabilizer involvement it really is the same basic movement pattern as the free weight barbell Squat and so for hypertrophy it also has to go in s tier all right let's move on to the 45° leg press since you're also flexing and extending the knee the quads will of course receive high tension however I do find that a lot of leg presses don't allow me to get as deep as I can get on a squat again as far as hypertrophy is concerned the deeper you can get the better so if you're not able to get

your calves cheer glutes you might not be getting as much out of a leg press as you would out of a deep squat outside of that though leg presses do generally feel good and they are good for overload I'm going to put them in a tier now the horizontal leg press is worse in my opinion because they almost always have even more limited range of motion so it'll be harder to get high tension in the Deep stretch and once your legs get decently strong you'll probably max out the machine which means overload is going to

be more limited for intermediate to Advanced lifters the horizontal leg press is going in C tier the lunge is a better glute Builder than it is a quad builder in my experience even though it will grow both you get some stretch and some tension on the quads but not as much as you get on the glutes they do feel good but if you're doing them right you should feel your glutes more than your quads you can get the quads more involved by taking more shallow steps and there's nothing wrong with that but I think they're

best utilized and best thought of as a glute Builder as a quad exercise they're going in B tier but I'd say they'd probably be a or S tier for glute growth all right the leg extension this is a surprisingly controversial one some people say that they're bad for your knees but this has been thoroughly debunked now if you have bad knees or they give you knee pain you should go easy on them but there's no convincing evidence that they cause knee issues any more than any other quad exercise but the great thing about the leg

extension is that your hips are fixed this means that unlike squat based exercises your rectus femoris will actually stretch and contract here this makes it the first exercise where all four heads of the quads will be highly engaged this is even more the case if you set the seat back in fact a brand new study found significantly more overall quad growth and especially more rectus fous growth with the seat back leg extension position that's most likely because it places the rectus Fus under more stretch or it at least trains it at a longer muscle length

assuming you're leaning back and you've got a machine that stretches your quads well I think they're good enough to get into a tier they don't have quite the same overload potential as squats do and even though some studies do show similar leg growth between leg extensions and squats those are short-term studies and I'm just frankly doubtful that doing leg extensions will net you the same quad gains as doing squats over the long term that said they're still a staple on my leg days and they're an exercise I definitely think is worth including all right the

reverse Nordic is the same basic movement pattern as a leg extension except they have the added benefit of being more accessible you don't need a leg extension machine to do them you can also get a much deeper stretch on your quads here the slight negative though is that they are really tough meaning beginners might struggle with them and they can be hard to overload with weight so you're a bit more limited on your overload options you can still add a rep each week though or try to get a bit deeper and because the stretch is

s tier on these and they're so accessible I'm going to put them in a tier overall but if you find them really awkward I'd be cool if you drop them back a tier or two all right let's knock out three final squat variations one that I love one that I hate and one that's just okay goblet squats are biomechanically very similar to a barbell front squat so they will highly activate your quads but because you have to hold a dumbbell in your hands they're actually a lot harder to overload once your quads get decently strong

you'll be able to squat a lot more weight than you'll be able to comfortably hold so the goblet squat will quickly be limited to high rep sets only these days I generally only use it in two contexts for teaching the squat to beginners and as a high rep finisher exercise these are just okay for me and I'm putting them in C or B tier I guess B tier since they definitely can have their place jump squats will burn some calories and they aren't terrible for building explosive power but as a muscle builder there are just

too many other better options out there that'll provide more more tension and more overload I'm not a fan of these for hypertrophy so they're going in F tier Bulgarian split squats are brutal but they sure do work you'll get a huge stretch on your quads and doing each leg unilaterally can be very helpful for preventing any left to right muscle imbalances but because they're so fatiguing and psychologically challenging I usually only program two sets of these per workout your quads will get more sore doing these than on almost any other exercise and while soreness isn't

a onetoone predictor of hypertrophy in this case I think it is a good indication that hitting the right muscle I'm putting Bulgarian split squats in s tier deadlifts do activate the quads but not nearly as much as squats do that's not surprising when you look at the side view as far as the quads are concerned a deadlift is basically a quarter squat you'll get a bit more quad involvement if you deadlift with a Sumo stance but they still don't hold the candle to squats for Quad growth they're a much better glute Builder and they're an

excellent overall strength Builder but for quadriceps and muscle growth deadlifts are going in C tier step-ups are equally not fun as Bulgarian split squats but also less effective because you get less quad stretch and they're less stable they do offer a pretty solid glute stimulus though especially if you avoid lifting off your back foot and they can have their place but overall I'm feeling C tier on these pistol squats are an impressive movement if you can do them but the lack of stability and overload limitations knock them down quite a bit for me if you're

limited to at home workouts or body weight training I think they're great but assuming you have gym access there are just so many better options I'm going to put pistol squats in C tier as a quad Builder squats are similar to reverse nordics and that they get a huge stretch on your quads and don't let the name deceive you these are very challenging that said they're a bit harder to load so I find them mainly limited to adding reps when it comes to Progressive overload and I find that they have more of a learning curve

than the other squat options people can also find it awkward going up onto their toes and getting their knees all the way forward but if you can get the technique down I do think they're probably the best squat option for getting into a super deep stretch on the quads so despite some limitations I'm feeling A or B tier on these I do find them a bit awkward though so let's go with B tier all right and if I had to Crown just one exercise as the best of the best for Quad growth I think I'd

have to go with a hack squat I personally find the pendulum squat feels better but because most gyms don't have one I'll go with a hack squat the one issue with hacks is that on some machines you can't get to full depth without coming up solid if that's the case for you try adding some yoga blocks on top of your shoulders and then you'll be able to get all the way down and if your gym doesn't have a hack squat I'd say a high bar barbell back squat would be my alternate go-to as a number

one quad Builder and if I had to pick one exercise as the worst of the worst I guess it have to be the bosu ball squat just get rid of the bosu ball and it immediately becomes more stable more safe and more effective now do you know the best and worst triceps exercises if not you got to check out my new video on triceps training over here and that's it for this one guys don't forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you guys

all here in the next one